The floor hurt.
“Woah there, partner. Take it easy.”
An orange hoof entered my vision, and I slowly raised my head to see the pony it was attached to. She wore nothing save a Stetson, which seemed ridiculous even with what I knew about ponies. I tried to get a look at her cutie mark, but quickly stopped before I looked like even more of a tourist. Instead I took the offered hoof in one hand and used it to help myself up. “Sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
The pony nodded, taking a step back and looking up at me. “I could see that. Where ya headed?”
“Uh… Equestria Prime, actually.”
“Well, ain’t that a thing. Same here. C’mon, then, the gate’s this way. Can’t have you falling over any more, can we?” Without waiting to see if I was following, she was already moving off. Somewhat awkwardly, I ran to catch up.
I took a moment to look the pony over, as she was suddenly much more interesting than the station corridor we were walking through. Now I could see that she sported a trio of apples on her flank, which raised more questions than it answered. What was she doing all the way up here?
“You’re new to the system, ain’t ya?” the pony asked, breaking my train of thought. She was looking over her shoulder at me, a slight smile on her face. At my nod, she continued, “Well, I’m glad I got the chance ta welcome ya, then. Name’s Applejack.”
“Like the drink?” I blurted, before my brain could catch up with my mouth.
Applejack chuckled, not seeming offended. “Sure, if you like. Ta me, it’s just my name.”
I resisted the urge to start stammering apologies, and instead offered my hand to shake. “Uh, it’s Robert. Robert Wright.”
Applejack made no motion to shake my hand, and eventually I put it away, feeling silly. She seemed to be playing with my name in her head. “Robert, then. Nice t’meet’cha. What brings you to Equestria?”
I opened my mouth, and then closed it again, trying to come up with an answer I could actually articulate. Somehow, “your species is just so fascinating” sounded creepy in my head. Ever since the Equestrians had shown up at the edges of our empire with an inexplicable combination of impossible magic and absolutely no desire to conquer anyone with it, the relations between species had been… strange. Ponies weren’t allowed on Earth, as they were a security risk. The Equestrians had responded by fully opening their borders to humans. Not many had taken them up on it. We had too many stories of that going badly in our history, after all.
And here I was, on an Equestrian space station, only one short jump from their homeworld, talking to a pony who seemed to think this was the most normal thing in the world.
“I guess… curiosity?” I didn’t say it with much conviction, but at least it wasn’t likely to scare her off.
Applejack looked me over. “Yeh’ve come a long way just fer being curious, I reckon. Still, I’m sure everypony will be glad to see you.” She turned and started walking again.
I followed her in silence, taking the time to look around. The station was nothing like what I was used to - brightly colored, the walls covered with murals, or cut away into small markets manned by smiling ponies. None of them seemed surprised to see me, they just gave me occasional waves if they happened to make eye contact.
“Applejack?” I ventured. “Can I ask you a question?”
The orange pony paused again, cocking her head in a way that reminded me once again how not human she was.
“Why… why is everyone so happy to see a human? It seems… weird.”
Applejack took a moment to consider that question, weighing her answer. Finally, she spoke. “You don’t know much about ponies, do you?” She didn’t seem to need an answer to that. “Well, we know a lot about you. You’ve fought with nearly every other species you’ve encountered, and the ones you didn’t were because they knew they couldn’t fight you back so they didn’t even try. And now you’ve found somepony that don’t fit into one of those boxes, and ya ain’t sure what to do about it.”
I started to open my mouth, but it seemed she wasn’t done. “We’re not like y’all. We have the magic of friendship, and friendship is fer everypony, even if they done bad in the past. We’re friendly because that’s what it is to be a pony. And if you’re here, it’s because that’s something you want, one way or another.” She smiled again, and patted my arm with one hoof. “So we’re here to welcome you to Equestria, friend. Now c’mon, the sooner we get planetside the sooner I can get you some of Granny’s famous apple cider.”
I paused for a moment, and then, slowly, I smiled. “I think I would like that a lot.”
A few moments later, we were at the gate, and through it I could see the wavery images of pastel ponies and brightly colored buildings. Together with Applejack, I stepped on through.